Poiana Gray 1864

Poiana Gray 1864, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1864: 507.

Type Species: Genetta richardsonii Thomson 1842

Species and subspecies: 2 species with 2 subspecies:

Species Poiana leightoni Pocock 1907

Species Poiana richardsonii (Thomson 1842)

Subspecies Poiana richardsonii subsp. richardsonii Thomson 1842

Subspecies Poiana richardsonii subsp. ochracea Thomas and Wroughton 1907

Discussion: There are two widely separated (approximately 1600 km) allopatric populations of Poiana: the congo population ( P. richardsonii), and the West African population, which Rosevear (1974) raised to the specific level ( P. leightoni). Poiana records are few and scattered; however, recent reviews place leightoni as a separate species (de Beaufort, 1965; Gaubert et al., 2002 b; Kingdon, 1977; Michaelis, 1972).